Protesters Gather in Hong Kong
To Oppose Anti-Assembly Law

By

Gren Manuel Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal

Updated Oct. 9, 2000 12:38 p.m. ET

HONG KONG -- About 800 people rallied in Hong Kong on Sunday against an unpopular law limiting the freedom of assembly. The gathering amounted to the first broad-based civil disobedience here in several years, and a direct challenge to the government's enforcement of one of its most controversial laws.

The protesters marched in opposition to the Public Order Ordinance, which requires a permit for demonstrations larger than a few dozen people. Public dissatisfaction with the law was fueled by television footage in June...